Reaping the benefits from the cocoa industry

Cocoa has been the mainstay of the economy since colonial days. It has played a major role in the development of the country.

Cocoa farmers contributed immensely to the establishment of Ghana’s premier university, the University of Ghana, Legon. No wonder a hall of residence in the university, Akuafo Hall, was named in honour of our illustrious farmers.

Proceeds from cocoa have helped to establish schools and hospitals and also build roads throughout the country. That is why even today we have roads in the country referred to as cocoa roads.

It is also to do our farmers honour that a day has been set aside as International Cocoa Day to celebrate the exploits of  farmers.

Cocoa is one of the major crops that have producer prices which are announced by governments every year, in consultation with farmers.

Sometimes, in fixing the producer price per tonne, there is jaw-jaw between farmers and the government because while farmers want maximum returns on their investments, the government wants part of the foreign exchange to carry out development in the country.

Over the years, the industry has witnessed ups and downs, with the highest point being the period when Ghana was the leading producer and exporter of cocoa in the world.

Today, we are second to Cote d’Ivoire because the industry has been in a state of flux. Successive governments have introduced many interventions to get Ghana back on track to become the leading producer and exporter of the crop.

Some of the interventions, including the mass spraying of cocoa farms and the massive fight against the swollen shoot disease, have started bearing fruits, as the industry was able to increase tonnage to over one million in 2011.

Unfortunately, the industry is taking a nose-dive again.

It is welcome news, however, that the government is taking steps to revive the industry by distributing seedlings to farmers in all six cocoa-producing regions of the country.

Nonetheless,it is regrettable that the industry is mired in all kinds of controversies, especially the politicisation of issues in Ghana. We know that everything is politics and, therefore, the cocoa sector cannot be free from the politics of the day.

We, however, plead with all stakeholders to state their positions very clearly and forcefully, without drawing the industry into partisan politics.

It is in this vein that the Daily Graphic finds it quite worrying that the communication that announced the shutdown of two plants of the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) in Tema rather created doubt in the minds of a section of the public. Earlier communications had said the shutdown was due to operational challenges, but when a section of the public started reading in between the lines, saying there was more to it than met the eyes, the management of CPC started shifting the goal posts. Now the management says the shutdown is due to routine maintenance.

So what is the true story surrounding the closure?

We think the management of the CPC could have avoided the rationalisation of the issues if it had packaged the communication better than it did.

Cocoa will continue to be our life blood, even with the discovery of oil, and that is why all of us must help improve the fortunes of the industry for our common good.